Effects of electrolyte viscosity on the efficiency of the electrochemical removal of lead ions using porous flow-through electrodes

ABSTRACT

The current study addresses the effect of the electrolyte viscosity on the efficiency of porous flow-through electrode [PFTE] made up of stacked screens during the electrochemical removal of lead ions from flowing alkaline solutions. Two types of efficiencies characterize the overall behaviour of the PFTE, namely, the collection efficiency [ratio of the captured ions to the feed concentration] and the coulombic efficiency [percentage of the total current used for the electrodeposition of lead ions]. The increase in the electrolyte viscosity causes a decrease in the experimentally measured limiting current of the electrodeposition reaction at the same electrolyte flow rate, and hence the collection efficiency decreases correspondingly. Also, the coulombic efficiency decreases with the increase of the electrolyte viscosity. This is attributed to the consequences of decreasing the diffusivity and the interfacial mass transfer coefficient of lead ions with the increase of electrolyte viscosity. On the other hand, the conductivity of the electrolyte has no effect on the limiting current